May 31, 2024 — The Siege Of Samaria

The doubter proved his ignorance of heaven’s architecture. Make windows? See Malachi 3:10.

How fickle is the world! The Syrian troops who came to assassinate Elisha had been temporarily blinded and led helpless into Samaria where, instead of executing them, Israel’s king, on Elisha’s instruction, “prepared a great feast for them” (2 Ki 6:23). After they had dined royally, “he sent them away…So the bands of Syrian raiders came no more into the land of Israel.” That’s how the paragraph ends. How long did this détente last? You can see the answer in the very next sentence. “And it happened after this that Ben-Hadad king of Syria gathered all his army, and went up and besieged Samaria” (v 24). Here, the Syrians, in response to the feast the Samaritans provided, gave them a famine, “and indeed they besieged it until a donkey’s head was sold for eighty shekels of silver, and one-fourth of a kab of dove droppings for five shekels of silver” (v 25). But it didn’t stop at donkey-head soup. As the king took his daily walk, a woman shocked him with the news that the citizenry had actually sunk into cannibalism (vv 28-29)! So did he call a prayer meeting? No! He yowled, “God do so to me and more also, if the head of Elisha the son of Shaphat remains on him today!” (v 31). Elisha decided a preemptive strike was best, and strode into the palace. “Thus says the Lord: ‘Tomorrow about this time a seah of fine flour shall be sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley for a shekel, at the gate of Samaria’” (7:1). Virtually giving away food? The court treasurer eyed the preacher. He knew what was needed to keep the city alive each day. “Look, if the Lord would make windows in heaven, could this thing be?” Mr Doubter, said Elisha, you’re going to see God’s blessings with your eyes, “but you shall not eat of it” (v 2). And now the scene changes.

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